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Written By Rick Ellis, Friday, August 30th, 2002 There are a lot of Big Brother 3 websites, but as real news goes, it is pretty slim pickings online. Producers of the show (as well as CBS), hold a pretty tight rein on information, even when it comes to most mundane details of the program. As a result, most fans of the show content themselves with discussing the live feeds, and the infrequent sightings once contestants are outside the house. Which is why I haven't written much about Big Brother 3. It's not that I don't care for it (although it's not my favorite reality series), it's that I struggle to find new things to say. AllYourTV.com isn't a fan site, it's a business, and frankly, if I can't draw upon my years of journalism experience, than I'm not interested. But I have found the occasional thing to write about, from the sexier-than expected live feeds to the difficulties in counting the actual live feed audience number. I've been talking with someone affiliated with Big Brother since I wrote a piece last spring on Survivor. That article broke the story that producers of the show had discovered a mistake in one of the challenges, leading to several contestants receiving an additional sum of money. The article grabbed this person's attention, and over the months we've corresponded, without me knowing precisely who I was talking to until last week. As it turns out, this person has a fairly substantial behind-the-scenes role on Big Brother. And he/she agreed to talk to me about the show, with some conditions. I couldn't print anything that would lead to their identification (not even whether I was talking to a man or woman), and there were some questions he/she would answer, but off the record. So with those caveats, here are some excerpts of an extended conversation about Big Brother 3, CBS and anything else that seemed appropriate. Q: Okay, let's deal with the big question first. Who's going to win Big Brother 3? A: LOL! Despite what you might hear from fans, we're really not manipulating things so that a particular person wins or loses. It ultimately does come down to a lot of random factors that are pretty much out of our direct control. Q: A lot of viewers point to the day in which Amy reentered the Big Brother 3 house as a time in which it seemed that producers were manipulating events. She was overheard telling other houseguests that she was warned about their plan to vote out whomever was let back in that night. And she was told she had "better win head of household." A: This is a tricky area to talk about. And frankly, some of this stuff I only hear about through the grapevine. But my honest feeling is that there wasn't anything as blunt as someone telling Amy, "This is their plan, you must win." But she's smarter than you might suspect, and I can believe that she was able to read between the lines of what she was told in the diary room. You have to understand that there are a lot of factors at play here. We obviously want to show to be as entertaining as possible. And to that end, it's good to shake things up, break up alliances....anything to keep the show from falling into an endless "Brittany Loves Curtis" repeat. But as far as I know, there isn't anyone directly manipulating the show to the extent some fans claim. |
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